


Turn Left

by angellwings



Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:15:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23236807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angellwings/pseuds/angellwings
Summary: Set during S7E22. What if Sylvie had interrupted Matt at Molly's that night? What if Matt found out Kyle came to the bar to say goodbye? [Brettsey][One Shot][Canon Divergence]
Relationships: Sylvie Brett/Matthew Casey
Comments: 33
Kudos: 153





	Turn Left

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:**   
>  This is set during the Season 7 finale. This was originally going to be a Multichap. I wrote it while I was working on Love Is Looking For You, but I decided not to make a WIP out of it because I got a MUCH BETTER Season/Series AU idea last night. 
> 
> However, I do love what I wrote here and I wanted to share it. I have more in another doc that was supposed to be for a second chapter but that gets into Otis’s death and it’s just FAR too sad. Especially, for right now. So, instead you get this peek at an alternate timeline for funsies.
> 
> Happy Reading!
> 
> Angellwings

* * *

**_Rose:_ ** _ By changing time. By making someone’s life take a different turn.  _

_ Like, ah, meetings never made, children never born, a life never loved. But with you it’s… _

**_Donna:_ ** _ But I never did anything important! _

**_Rose:_ ** _ Yeah, you did. One day that thing made you turn right instead of left. _

_ -Doctor Who, “Turn Left” (Series 4, episode 11) _

* * *

“I always liked him. With you, I mean. You’re both—“

“Casey, I—“

“Good—“

“No, Casey—“

“Selfless peop—“

“ _ Matt _ !”

At the sound of Sylvie’s increased volume, he immediately drops whatever well intentioned bullshit he was spouting, and meets her eyes.

“That wasn’t what you thought it was,” she tells him insistently.

“You mean you two aren’t—“

“ _ No _ ,” she says, cutting off his question. “Actually, he’s leaving. He got a job in Indianapolis. He’s going to be the director of the first responders’ peer to peer initiative.  _ That  _ was him telling me he’s leaving the CFD, like  _ tomorrow _ .”

All he can say is, “Oh.”

Well, he feels like an idiot.

“Yeah,” she says with a small amused grin. “ _ Oh _ . So, sorry to cut you off. What were you saying?”

“Um, you know, I guess it’s not important anymore,” he says, awkwardly scratching behind his ear. 

Relief burns in his lungs and the false happiness he was forcing himself to feel deflates. He should really stop assuming the worst all the time.

“Are you sure? Was it whatever you wanted to ask outside of the Ambo earlier?” she asks with a wary glance.

No, it wasn’t but now that she’s reminded him— “The Ambo, right. I was hoping to be alone for that question. That’s why I stopped earlier. We had a bit of an audience.”

She nods and then glances around the empty hallway. “Well, we seem to be alone now.”

She’s right. He’s out of excuses. “That we do,” he replies. “Alright, um, okay. Here goes nothing — no pressure by the way.”

“Copy that. Go ahead,” she tells him with a warm and encouraging smile.

“So, Boden invited me to this dinner with him and Donna at the Palms—“

“Wow, swanky,” Brett says, her posture straightening with intrigue.

“Yes, exactly. Which is why I was told to bring a date,” he continues with a nod.

“And you want me to set you up?” She asks — though it sounds more like a statement than a question.

“No,” he answers with a chuckle. “I was actually hoping that, um,  _ you _ might want to go with me?”

“Oh,” she replies with a pleasantly surprised smile.

He repeats her words from a few moments ago with a smirk. “Yeah.  _ Oh _ . I mean, if it’s too weird then feel free—“

“I’d love to,” she interrupts, eagerly. “When?”

“Friday,” he answers. He feels caught off guard by her easy acceptance. “The night after next? Sorry for the late notice.”

“Oh, it’s totally fine,” she assures him. “I don’t have any plans and finding something fancy to wear won’t be a problem.”

Wow, that went better than he imagined it would. “Great. So, is seven okay? To pick you up?”

“Absolutely,” she agrees, smiling sunnily. “We’re on.”

He gulps and can’t help but smile back. It’s a reflex when it comes to Brett. “Good.”

She clears her throat and runs a hand through her hair, nervously. He feels her hand squeeze his arm lightly before she points to the table he saw her at earlier. “I’m over there with Foster and Cruz. You wanna join?”

He nods and let’s himself lean his weight a little closer to her. “Yeah, I’ll be over there. I’m going to the bar first, though. Do you want anything?”

She bites her bottom lip and then the corners of her mouth lift before she replies. “Sure. Vodka Tonic?”

“You got it. I’ll meet you at the table.”

They part ways with a shared smile that he’s sure looks completely goofy, but to be honest, he doesn’t really give a damn. He’s got a date with Sylvie Brett day after tomorrow. What’s there  _ not _ to look goofy about? 

And to think, he almost stood there and told her how “great” she and Kyle were over a bad assumption and a little misplaced guilt. Yeah, okay, at one time he thought she and the Chaplain were good together but the more time he spent with Sylvie then the more he wondered if he could be good with her too. Kyle had a fair chance and he let her go. That’s on The Chaplain, not Matt. There’s no reason why Sylvie shouldn’t move on. 

Maybe with someone who won’t turn and run the minute work conflicts with personal.

Someone like  _ him _ .

* * *

Did that really just happen? Did she actually go from awkward Kyle thoughts to overjoyed Matt thoughts in the span of a minute? It appears so. She comes back to the table with a goofy grin.

Foster narrows her eyes on her immediately.

“Okay, your face now is totally different from when you left the table. What happened?” She asks.

“Um,” she hesitates and blinks in shock. For a moment she thinks she dreamed it, but then she looks over at the bar and her eyes connect with Matt’s as he chats with Stella. His smile grows when he spots her and she knows she didn’t imagine it. “Casey just asked me to dinner.”

Foster’s eyes widen and she rushes Sylvie with a hug. “I knew it! Oh my god, I knew it!”

“Shh!” Sylvie admonishes. “He’s just over at the bar. He’ll hear you.”

“I don’t care. This is happening! All is right with the world,” Emily tells her. “I mean, you know I love Kyle but I will never understand why the guy bailed on you after  _ one _ professional setback. Casey doesn’t strike me as the type to scare so easy. You deserve that.”

There’s a bit of a commotion as Stella rushes out of the bar, but a split second later Matt is shrugging at Hermann, grabbing their drinks, and making his way across the room to her.

“It’s actually funny how the pieces fell into place,” Emily says. “You two wouldn’t have grown closer without Kyle ending things with you and now just as you and Casey are both ready to move on Kyle is leaving for good? I mean, imagine how heartbroken you’d be right now if Kyle hadn’t broken up with you when he did? Instead, you’ve had time to recover and rebuild. It’s kinda perfect, actually.”

It  _ is _ kind of perfect. Emily’s right. If she’d stayed with Kyle and then found out about this job she would have been home crying her eyes out over ice cream but instead she’s excitedly anxious about new possibilities with Matt Casey. It was like the universe knew Kyle wouldn’t be sticking around Chicago and wanted to spare her the pain.

“I still don’t understand why you’re a romantic about everyone else’s love life but your own,” Sylvie tells Foster with a chuckle. “It makes no sense.”

“It does to me,” Emily says as Matt reaches their table. 

“Vodka Tonic,” he says as he sets the glass down in front of her.

“Thank you,” she replies. Matt takes the empty seat next to her with his bottle of IPA. 

Cruz acknowledges him with a nod. “Casey, how’s it going?”

He grins at Cruz and then trades secretive glances with Brett before answering. “Good. Really good, actually.”

Sylvie purposefully takes a sip from her drink to hide her smirk. Good might be an understatement.

There’s just one more shift between her and a date with Matthew Casey. The future is looking pretty bright. 

* * *

Casey gets to work earlier than usual the next morning. When they arrive, Severide and Boden give him strange looks. They meet in the Chief’s office at his request.

“What’s with you?” Severide asks as they sit and wait for Boden. “You’re all smiles. It’s freaking me out.”

Before he can answer, Boden enters the room. 

“From the looks of it,” Boden says as he sits behind his desk. “You were able to find a date for tomorrow night?”

Matt’s grin turns crooked as he nods. “The situation is under control, Chief.”

He chuckles and then smirks slightly. “Glad to hear it. I’m pushing the morning briefing back a half hour. I have a few things I need to deal with beforehand. Spread the word.”

“Will do,” Severide replies, giving Casey a curious look.

“That’s all for now. Let’s get the day started right,” Boden declares. 

They leave Boden’s office and Casey decides to head to the apparatus floor to check on the condition his truck was left in, but Severide stops him.

“Who’s the date?” He asks. “Gotta be someone special cause you look far too happy.”

“Let me see how the date goes first,” Casey tells him. “I don’t wanna get ahead of myself.”

“Fair enough,” Severide says with a smirk. “You okay if Stella stays over tomorrow night?”

Matt’s eyebrows rise with a grin. “You and Stella are back together?”

Severide shrugs modestly. “Let’s just say I had a really good night last night.”

Matt laughs and claps Kelly on the shoulder. “Congrats, man. Really, that’s great. And yeah, of course she can come over. Don’t worry about me.”

They part ways, Kelly to the bunk room and Matt to the apparatus floor. He’s checking the truck when he hears Cruz and Otis approaching. Knowing, Brett will be right behind them he looks up immediately.

“Briefing’s been delayed a half hour,” he announces.

Cruz and Otis reply but he misses it. He misses it because the Chaplain appears out of nowhere to talk to Sylvie. He looks anxious. Matt can’t hear what he’s saying, but he doesn’t need to once Kyle drops down on one knee.

Sylvie looks stunned. Her brow furrows and she frowns when she notices they’ve drawn a crowd. He sees guilt flash across her expressive blue eyes before she puts her hand on Kyle’s shoulders and pulls him back to a standing position.

He hears a collective wince from the crowd by the squad table, and they all pointedly avoid looking at the former couple.

Matt takes a cautious step or two closer, hoping to overhear.

“Kyle, I—I’m so sorry. Can we go inside and talk? I mean, where is this coming from all of a sudden?”

Kyle looks crestfallen but not exactly surprised. “If the answer isn’t an immediate yes then it’s a no, and don’t be sorry. I’m the one who decided to ambush you at work and—look, let’s just forget it ever happened, okay? Can we just leave it at our goodbye last night?”

The Chaplain looks mortified and Casey can’t blame him. But he’s also relieved by Sylvie’s response. For a moment he was worried she’d say yes.

“Sure,” she says apologetically. “Whatever you want. I—I really am sorry.”

“What’s going on?” Kelly asks as he appears at Matt’s side.

“I think The Chaplain just asked Sylvie to marry him...and she said no.”

Severide grimaces with sympathetic embarrassment. “Ouch. But really what did he expect? They’ve been broken up for a while now and they only dated for, what, three months? Maybe?”

“True,” Casey replies. He hadn’t thought about that. Would Sylvie really give up her whole life here for a guy she only dated for a few months?

While he and Severide are talking, Kyle wanders off. Once he’s gone everyone heads inside for breakfast. Casey catches up to her as she enters the common room.

“Hey, you okay?” He asks.

She flashes him a weak but genuine smile and then squeezes his arm. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Did he give you any sort of sign that he might be thinking about proposing?” Matt asks.

Her expression becomes a mess of thoughtful confusion. “No. None. I mean he was a little awkward when he left Molly’s last night, but I never would have guessed he would propose. I genuinely thought last night was the last time I would see him. I mean I feel awful about embarrassing him like that but—“

“Hey,” he says as he makes sure to catch her eye. “You didn’t tell him to propose. That was all him. There’s no reason for you to feel guilty. What else could you have done? Said yes and then regretted it later? You have to make the choice that’s right for  _ you _ , Sylvie.”

“The choice that’s right for me is the choice that keeps me in Chicago,” she says, honestly. “This is more my home than Indiana ever was.” She stops and then looks around at the rest of second shift. “Besides,” she says with an affectionate grin. “My family’s  _ here _ .”

“I’m glad you feel that way,” Matt admits. “I don’t want to think about 51 without Sylvie Brett.”

“Well, that’s good,” she says with a blush and a grin. “Because you don’t have to worry about that. Ever.”

The bells go off, suddenly, and a call comes in. They’ll have to continue this conversation later — when they can finalize their plans for dinner. They trade small giddy grins and nods before rushing to their rigs. 

It’s time to get to work.


End file.
